


Some Classical Anthology

by squick



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Greek and Roman Mythology - Freeform, I Hate Athena Like Actually, Like i get it but also. She's the worst, Poetry, WE ARE HERA STANS IN THIS HOUSEHOLD, i have my biases
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-04-20 17:39:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 2,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14266236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squick/pseuds/squick
Summary: Whenever I get emotions I think about the Graeco-Roman gods like the classics major I am, so here's all the poems and stories I write I guess





	1. Asteropaios

o, child of the sea,

why were you named for the stars?

what false hope to you it must have gave,

what heartbreak to return to the waves.


	2. a son, rather than a sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we all stan for Icarus but what about the best burned baby boy Phaeton??/ I love him and cry about him all the time!

oh everyone knew,

how Icarus had loved the Sun

and everyone knew,

how Phaeton longed to be that one.

he offered himself,

and Icarus didn’t blink

when he offered himself

as the next best thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im just gonna keep summarizing myths you might not know OTL:  
> Icarus, you know, boy with wings flew too close to the sun and the wax of his wings melted and he fell into the ocean and DIED  
> Phaeton was the son of Helios but Helios like wasn't in his life because, you know, that's just how gods be, and so Phaeton asks Helios if he's really his dad, to which Helios replies, "I'll do literally anything to convince you that you're my son" and Phaeton asks Helios to let him drive the chariot that takes the sun around the world to which Helios replies "bad fuckin idea babe" to which Phaeton replies "but ddAAADDDD" to which Helios replies "FINE but don't fly too high up or too low to the ground or literally everything will go wrong" and you know, a la every myth, everything goes wrong, Phaeton almost burns the entire planet, Zeus has to shoot him down with a lightning bolt.
> 
> I love that this description is longer than the poem


	3. Athene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> she's not a feminist icon she hates women

Don’t you ever get tired of just being one of the boys?

I know that this flavor of safety you’ve achieved must be so good,

But honey,

Your mother went missing before you were even born.

One uncle took your sister for himself, with your father as his wingman

The other uncle took a virgin like yourself, but you found fault in the wrong crime then.

What is it like to have shelter?

Artemis kills her predators, and Hera married hers.

When your father wants something, somehow the line always blurs,

But you,

You’re just one of the boys. 

And you can forget what Hephaestus did

Because in the end his attempts were prevented,

But you,

You must remember that taste.

The sensations when you looked him in the face.

What it was like to be the one running away.

How it felt to feel fear, once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> she hates women


	4. Hera to the Artemisians

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Artemisians" aren't any actual group - I'm thinking about young and free women in general who probably like, hate Hera

I am the one who kept your mothers sane.

And though you may hate me for it, she thanked me in the nights

When the lights were out, she gripped the sheets, and she closed her eyes.

I am the one who told your mothers

That someday this life would feel worth living

Though over the millennia I had yet to feel it myself.

I gave them hope

When they could only watch from the inside

And I listened

When they told me

About their sorrows

The ones they could never voice to you, or their husbands, or the lovers they never took

And they wept to me,

The same tears that I had already shed.


	5. Hera on Athena

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is longer but i didn't like the full thing so just take my favourite bit!

I cannot hurt her.

I always treasure my own life enough, always love him in spite of himself just enough, that I cannot bring myself to hurt her.

I am the goddess of families, and Olympus has seen no stronger bond than that of my husband and his daughter.

Their love is good. It is pure.

And though she favors cheaters and liars and the most corrupt of men; though she spurns the talented and the beautiful without reason; though she renounces the woman that she is, the women that both I and Artemis have sworn to protect,

Their love is so pure.

And who am I to obstruct the only pure love that my husband has ever felt?


	6. Ares on Athena

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ares discusses Athena

Maybe I’m no good at words but I’m plenty good at war and I’m not fucking stupid.

What’s there to like about Athena?

Is it because she’s smooth-talking like her mom? 

Well I got my mom’s rage. Her retribution. Her rationale.

And I know damn well that none of you would like Athena if you bothered to think for more than a second. But you’re always on some fake feminist-y shit, so who gives a fuck, huh?

I may be bloodshed but I do less damage. I may be violence but I have limits, even if they aren’t intentional. Once I’ve made my kills, I’ve done my damage.

But she’s scarier than me. You should fear her more. You should hate her more. She knows intimately the things that I would never think to do. She conjures up evils unthinkable. 

It is her that tells Greeks to kill children. To starve the people out. To kill as many as efficiently as possible. To send a message. 

I am fists and stones. She is semi-automatics and chemical weapons.

But you humans love those, too, don’t you?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wouldnt say I'm an Ares stan but he's kinda pitiable in the Greek canon, y'know?


	7. Postbellum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just cant stop thinking about Ares and Athena and just what makes them so different

Ares informed her, 

“The war is over.”

And Athena smiles a very thin smile and almost agrees,

“I suppose so.”

This makes Ares nervous. This is the part that always makes Ares nervous. When the city is burned, the riches are looted, the women are taken, and the battles are fought, and yet only Ares sees that the war has come to an end. 

War is never that simple, not to Athena. War is a game. A series of calculated moves, each with a purpose, each step carefully placed to smother out everything in sight.

Ares comes for revenge and retribution. He fulfils vendettas. He ends private matters.

Athena ends everything. The war is not over until she is sure that she ends everything.

She is still smiling, watching the women shuffle toward the ships. Her eyes are bright. She is thinking of something clever. She is thinking of something cruel. Her eyes land on the child.

Ares’ do the same, and the nerves threaten to bring the ambrosia back up from his stomach.

“Sister,” He never calls her that. “The war is over.”

Her eyes twinkle, her smile becomes full and true, and she is very beautiful. She is always at her most beautiful when she is at her most wretched.

“Almost.” She reassures him, and wings her way back down to the mortals. To Odysseus. He cannot see her but his ears are always receptive of her messages. She whispers to him. Ares’ nails dig into his palms.

And now, as always, Odysseus has an idea. He is clever like his patron. He takes most of his ideas from his patron. He calls the attention of his fellow Greeks. 

A god he certainly may be, but there is nothing that Ares can do as the scene unfolds. 

The wife of their greatest warrior is crying. She is holding the child - the one who made Athena’s eyes light up. She is weeping and shouting, she is inconsolable. The herald takes the child. Takes the child away from his mother, takes the child across the scorched earth, takes the child to the top of walls, still standing, the last remnant of Troy.

Ares and Athena both watch. Saying nothing. The child travels through the air sideways, turning over as he goes. Ares does not close his eyes, but he flinches at the cracking sounds.

Athena breathes out. She turns to him. Ares cannot stop staring at the child’s mangled body. A child is no warrior. A child is no warrior. This is not war. This is not the kind of war that Ares fights. This is not war. She is not -

“Brother.” 

She never calls him that. Her eyes are still bright. Her smile is still joyful. 

“The war is over.”

He swallows, steels his gaze as his eyes glaze over, turns to follow her back home.

“I suppose so.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> spot the 4 word LOTF reference


	8. weddings are for the girls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hera POV about Artemis

Artemis cries more than she will ever admit. 

Less so now, more so then. I am not sure if this is because things have gotten better, or because her tears are a long dried-up spring.

Though I may wear antipathy for her on my sleeve, there is empathy in the recesses of my heart. There is something just short of affection. You can only see someone shed but so many tears before you find yourself caring. 

She cries because she loves her girls. 

Because they are taken from her too soon.

I am the only one who knows this, because I am the one that she must give them to. 

The first time, I did not know what to feel. I oversaw the wedding, I blessed it, and I sat before the couple. Artemis was at my side, her silence ruined by strangled sobs and gasps for air, face marred by red eyes and puffy cheeks. 

The girl was thirteen.

The groom removed her veil. Artemis put a freezing hand in mine.

“She loves figs with honey, and playing huntress.” Artemis’ eyes were cold, but they were passionate. I did not look away. “She sneaks out of her room to eat them at night. The honey is too messy, so she foregoes it. And,” her voice catches. “Before her parents told her she was too old, she used to pretend to shoot a bow and arrow, hunting the stray dogs and cats. After they stopped her, she had to settle for stories about me.”

I did not know what to say.

“She wanted to be just like me.” Artemis finished, and she closed her eyes to let the cries rack through her body.

I wanted to hold her then. But, she was no child of mine, she was a bitter aftertaste, and there was a wedding at hand. I released her palm.

Centuries pass, and things are still the same. Artemis cannot afford to cry for all the girls she loses - there are too many, every day, every hour. I oversee the losses that are at the hands of marriage. Aphrodite oversees the ones that are not. Artemis has grown to be like stone. Never aging, always feeling much too much (as young girls do), but learning that it is better to be strong than to let them see you fold so many times. 

Today, there is another marriage.

The bride is eighteen, at least, but she is very afraid.

The groom kisses the bride. Artemis puts her frozen hand in mine. This is custom.

“She loves pizza, and is sad to be moving away from her family; but she finds solace in moving closer to the beach.” Her face is stiff, but her hand is shaking. This is custom. She still loves her girls.

“You will take care of her, won’t you?”

Artemis does not cry anymore. She replaces her sorrows with debts to me - for my promises, for my blessings, for my vigilance, for my comfort.

She trusts me now.

She loves the girls she loses as I love the women that they become.

“How could I not?”

This is custom. 

The groom carries the bride away. I follow them down the aisle. Artemis is jilted at the altar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for some reason writing these is like. therapeutic.


	9. Bar Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hades and Hera are good friends.   
> He loves Hera. Everybody loves Hera.

Hera doesn’t like to drink, but Hades does and she needs to get out, so they go to the bar anyway.

She stares into her overpriced fruit punch.

“He drives me _crazy_ with that, you know?” Hades swirls his drink again before taking a gulp. “Just drives me nuts.”

“He drives _you_ crazy?” Hera laughs, once, without joy. “Tell me more.”

Hades shakes his head, leaning his elbows onto the table. He’s looking at her, and he knows that’s the first mistake, but she needs someone. He’s someone. “All I’m saying is, if I had a woman like you, I’d -” He catches himself.

“You’d what?” She’s grinning. There’s something halfway to happy behind her eyes. Teasing him always makes her smile.

“I’d… do a lot of things.” Hades can’t take his eyes from hers, glinting bright in this bar that’s all too dim. “But mostly, I’d treat you better. Treat you _right_. I think any man would.”

Hera taps her finger on her glass a couple of times, she shrugs, looks down at the table. “You give your kind too much credit, Hades.”

“Maybe so.”

“Definitely so.”

He reaches over and taps her nose, making her look back up again. She’s got the prettiest eyes, and he wants to marry her.

“ _Maybe so_ , but we both know me pretty well - we both know I’d treat you better.”

Hera smiles, her face and voice soften. “We do.”

He’s thinking about what he’d name their kids when the bartender returns, asks Hera if her drink is alright, she assures her that it is, Hera tells her it’s just lovely, the bartender flutters her eyelashes a bit too hard, and Hades is almost halfway to jealous of a stranger in a bar getting attention from a woman that doesn’t belong to him. She definitely wants to marry her too.

“Can I say something?” He blurts out, when the bartender finally leaves.

“I’ve never been able to stop you.” Hera lifts her glace to her lips and tips it his way. “Shoot.”

“I wish you’d leave already.”

She doesn’t sputter and instead finishes taking a sip of her drink without batting an eye. “We both know that I can’t.”

“But -”

“Marriage. Family.” Hera sets the glass down again. She’s looking down again. Hades misses her eyes. “And besides, I love him.”

He groans against his will.

“I do, I do love him, even though he’s -” She pauses, searching for a word to fully encompass Zeus’ Zeusness. “He’s… himself.”

“You love him.”

“I do.”

“Whatever you say sweetheart.” Hades tosses the whole drink back.

“Hades,” Their eyes meet again and he is reminded of how he was thinking about how nicely she’d doll up the underworld. How she’d get on with Cerberus. How she’d keep the souls in line and the heroes out and all of the love between them burning bright. Her lips are perfect when she speaks, “I really appreciate you doing this. I can always depend on you. You look out for me more than anybody else.”

“Of course I do. How could I not?” He asks, and he’s tired.

“Easily. Very easily.” Hera’s phone vibrates and she turns to look at the glowing screen.

She chews at her lip a little as she does so. Hades wonders if she knows this. If she knows the effect that she has on people.

One look, and anyone would fall in love. Anyone would want to marry her. One look, and she’s a perfect bride, partner, mother. She’s perfect and you’re in love with her, and she’s the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen. It doesn’t take much. Everybody wants to marry Hera.

Save for, the one that got to.

“Oh. He wants to know where I am. I should go.”

“Don’t.” Hades warns.

“No, I should go.” She stands up. “Avoiding him won’t solve anything. I should get home.”

“Hera.”

“I know.” She smiles at him, and he is blinded, dazzled. “Thank you.”

She leans in and kisses him on the cheek. She isn’t thinking. She kisses Hades and he falls in love again. She means nothing but thanks by it, and they both know it, but gods, he’s in love all over again.

It doesn’t take much to want to marry Hera. It doesn’t take much to fall in love with Hera.

She leaves the bar and he’s not in love with her anymore.

Mostly sad, mostly lonely; he misses her. She’s a good friend. Too good for his brother.

Every time Zeus fucks up, he says it’s because the novelty’s worn off. But every time he sees Hera again, he can’t help trying to win her over because he fell in love one more time. That’s why he asks where Hades takes her; after he sees her with tears in her eyes. After he sees her screaming, thrashing, miserable. Even at her worst - or, especially at her worst - Zeus falls in love again and wants her back.

Hades would love to never give her back. Both in the moments when he’s in love, and the ones when he’s not.

Maybe he’s not in love anymore. But he still loves her.


	10. Unread Message

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol? this is old an short. didnt post bc i thot it was too short but it's funny

Nobody hates modern dating culture more than Hermes

Except for maybe Eros, who cuts it close

Who right when he’s ready to strike her with an arrow

Had to drop his bow to

Shield his eyes and gag at the unsolicited dick pic that Hermes just dropped off

And all three of them start to feel sick because,

_What the fuck, no one asked for this!!_


End file.
